September 2, 2009 Archives

You should really, really avoid empty intensifiers, a whole lot. They are the biggest wasters of words.

If you feel that your reference to "a big dog" doesn't do the dog
justice, instead of writing "a [very big / damn huge / friggen humongous] dog," a
good journalist will ask questions so that the passage will read
"130-pound Rottweiler named Bruiser."

You may already be very familiar with how to write an essay for an English class. Writing scholastic essays gives you verbal and compositional skills that transfer well to news writing. Nevertheless, your goals as a news writer are different, so what counts as "good writing" is different.

English
Essay

News
Story

Audience: Your Instructor

Usually, the
instructor knows more about the
subject than the student-author.

Audience: The General Reader

Usually, the reporter knows more about
the subject than the general reader.

Essays for Your Instructor

Your academic goal is to demonstrate how
much you know or what you can do.

Your instructor does not expect you to be an expert. You are
supposed to belearning. You write from the position of a learner.

An
instructor already knows the subject matter, and is interested in
evaluating your knowledge, technique, and growth over time. Your
teacher will read your work with an expert eye, ready to call your
attention to claims that are inaccurate, misleading, or incomplete.

Journalism for the General Public

A journalist aims to inform the
reader.

The journalist writes from a position of authority. The news is supposed
to be a source of verified facts, not just a vehicle
for passing along what people are saying. (We will cover the term "verification" later.)

Most readers won't know when you are wrong. Their understanding of the
subject depends entirely on your ability to research and write the news.

Personal Perspective

In high school, you may have been asked to express your
feelings, perhaps by explaining what you would have done if you
were in the protagonist's place, or relating a concept to your own life.

You used phrases like "I think" or "I feel" or "now that I look more
closely at it..." in order to tell the story of how you came to
your present understanding of a subject or incident.

Your teacher rewarded you for demonstrating personal involvement
with the subject, because students who engage in this
manner are generally more likely to learn the subject matter.

Objective Perspective

Traditional journalists stay out of the story. No
"I" or "me," and no "this reporter," either. (We will cover the concept of the "Invisible
Observer" soon.)

Journalists report the emotions and opinions of the sources they
interview --not their own personal feelings. (We will cover the concept of "Attributions" soon.)

Journalism investigates each story from the perspective of those
who care -- including those whose reasons for caring conflict with each other, or with the journalist's personal
values. (If it's not interesting to you, it may be interesting to someone.)